Monday, February 18, 2013

True News Update 24/7

Will Cuomo Reelection in 2014 Be So Big That It Wipes Out the Coalition State Senate?
The GOP poll founddismal support for a GOP state senate. That mean the Cuomo could be facing resistance to his future efforts to balance the budget and allow limited fracking.More important to team Cuomo it will not let gov to contined the accomplishment record that he will need to run on for president.

To Big to Succeed . . . Top of the World Ma

Weak GOP threat to Andy prez shot (NYP) A new poll from a respected Republican firm has senior Democrats
worried that Gov. Cuomo is headed for a massive re-election victory next
yearThe poll, which was being intensely studied last week by Democratic
operatives, reinforced the belief that if the governor faces a weak
Republican opponent — such as Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, who was
crushed by Cuomo in 2010 — the contest will be discounted from the
start by a national media focused on potential presidential candidates
for 2016.* Wright: Everyone On ‘Same Page’ With Minimum Wage(YNN) * Chris Christie: “I’m not much different from Andrew Cuomo. I probably agree with him on 98% of the issues.”

As Pols Fight Over Minimum Wage Rates Who is Fighting to Find Jobs for the Unemployed

The wages of humor(NYP)
Last
month, Gov. Cuomo one-upped them by proposing an $8.75 minimum wage in
his State of the State speech. Last week, President Obama one-upped him by floating a $9 federal minimum wage in his State of the Union.The Assembly is determined to catch up. On Thursday, Democrats announced their intention to pass their own $9 minimum-wage law.* Cuomo suggested on Sunday that he might
drop language increasing the minimum wage to $8.75 from his budget
proposal to allow for further negotiation because Republican legislators
say a minimum wage increase would hurt business, the Times-Union reports * Cuomo last night conceded that the federal effort to hike the minimum wage to $9 has added new complexity to the debate and said he may revise his $8.75 minimum wage proposal.* When Being Jobless Is a Barrier to Finding a Job(NYT)

___________________________________________________________________________________BOE And the Runoff

The Daily News wants to go back to the old lever machines and the NYT wants to push the primary up to June to help it chooice for mayor Quinn take advance of her strong lead in the polls. The DN said the the BOE solutions to the counting problem were unreal but did not discuss the commissional scandal or whose at fault for the long line on election day

Pull the levers of power(NYDN Ed) Albany must bring back the old voting machines for the 2013 mayoral election. The board has proposed several solutions, most of them preposterous.
Like printing up 826 million ballots with every possible combination of
runoff contenders, at a cost of $430 million. Let’s get real. The old lever machines are sitting in a Brooklyn
warehouse, protected from dust by plastic covers.

Back to the Future Voting Machines

Wheel them out and run
the elections just the way the city did for decades. Why did New York switch to scanners in the first place? Because, after
the Florida nightmare that failed to decide the race between George W.
Bush and Al Gore in 2000, Congress declared voting machines must produce
paper records of the vote. The mandate applies only to federal elections, of which there are none
in the city this fall. For this and only this occasion, the Legislature
and Gov. Cuomo should enact a bill empowering machine politics. * Move New York City’s Primaries to June(NYT)

What is Going On At the BOE Gadfly Alan Flacks?

Nothing. They are still: pooling their ignorance (only
one of the ten commissioners has institutional knowledge and knows
something about the Election law: Fred Umane, Rep.-Manh.);
granting an occasional salary increase to headquarters' staffers while
leaving the low-wage borough workers impoverished; keeping on payroll
two lawyers as counsel to the commissioners (not to the Bd. of Elect.,
whose lawyer, who does most of the work, did need a deputy general
counsel, which he finally got) who get paid a lot of money for doing
nothing; keeping on payroll an armed guard who is not needed (originally hired when an employee made threats against State Sen. Bill Perkins's wife who is the administrative manager); and still
"finally"
settling (certifying) the totals of the November, 2012, General
election as paper ballots still roll in thanks to Andrew Cuomo's order
that one may vote anywhere. They still--after two years--have failed
to reach a consensus as to whom to select for Executive Director.THE FLACKS REPORT

___________________________________________________________________________________Stop and Frisk and Campiagn 2013

Campaign at your own ‘frisk’(NYP) Democrats vying to succeed Mayor Bloomberg can expect their views
toward his stop-and-frisk policy to be a key campaign issue this year,
according to the leader of the nation’s most influential civil-rights
group. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said his organization “will encourage
every resident of the city to make stop-and-frisk one of the top
issues.”

It is Better for Lhota if Carrion Runs In November and Spits the Latino Vote With the Democrats

Is Molinari trying to keep Carrion's campaign from falling apart to insure that he does not drop out and runs on the independence line?“It’s fight, fight, fight,” Staten Island powerbroker Guy Molinarisaid of his recent decision to buck GOP mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota.
“If you didn’t have the stomach for it, then Staten Island would
suffer.” After Mr. Molinari dropped his endorsement due to unreturned
phone calls, it should be noted, Mr. Lhota “later called personally.”* Adolfo Carrión Jr. to Embark on Longshot Mayoral Bid (NYT) Adolfo Carrión Jr. says that the time may be right for an independent
candidate who can offer a moderate alternative to his Republican and
Democratic rivals.

And tomorrow’s special election to replace Councilman James Sandersremains heated:

McDonald Vs NYC Election LawIn a deliberate violation of New York
City’s laws on campaign contribution limits, Republican mayoral
candidate George McDonald has taken 10 contributions above the city’s
$4,950 legal limit as well as a $120,000 loan in violation of the city’s
law, the News reports

Isac WeinbergerPolitical gossip(NY Nag)No one does more to shape the rumor of the day—and, hence, drive the city’s political conversation—than does Weinberger, a gruff, rotund Hasidic Jew who works for the city. Weinberger spends his days on thephoneshaking down people for tips—who’s thinking of dropping out of what race, what a candidate’s internal polls are showing—and promptly passing them on to the next caller (without the benefit, it should be said, of any fact-checking, only increasing his power).* Isac Weinberger, 66(NYDN)

With no deal in sight, a senior administration official says the state will impose its own teacher evaluation system on New York City, making good on an earlier threat from Cuomo to do just that. Cuomo will slap city with teach-eval plan(NYP) Gov. Cuomo plans to submit legislation
this week that would authorize the state Education Department to impose a
new teacher evaluation system on New York City, with Mayor Bloomberg
and the teachers union still not close to a deal,

___________________________________________________________________________________Mental Health Scoop the nuts
(NYP)The city is making a major push to sweep the streets of dangerous,
mentally ill New Yorkers — and has even compiled a most-wanted list, The
Post has learned. The measure follows a pair of high-profile
subway-shove fatalities from December allegedly..* Health Dept. Wants NYPD Help In Tracking Mentally Ill (NY1)

Hammer time for the Housing Authority(NYDN Ed)Chairman John Rhea must get busy keeping his promise on repairs. The News crunches the daunting number
of backlogged repair requests that New York City Housing Authority
Chairman John Rhea has pledged to get fixed before the end of the year: how many repairs does #NYCHA need b4 Bloomberg leaves? "1,312.5 daily, about 55 per hour, or almost one a minute"

Eco-Friendly Dry Cleaners as a Barometer of Gentrification(NYT)Many dry cleaners in
gentrifying neighborhoods like Natural Cleaners in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,
use alternatives to traditional chemicals, responding to customers'
desires. In less affluent areas, though, the old solvents remain. Businesses promoting the “organic” and “natural” service have blanketed
affluent Manhattan neighborhoods and crept farther afield.

Judge Allows Trial to Weigh DA's 'Tactics'(WSJ) A judge ruled that a Queens man can pursue his claim that
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes had shown a deliberate
indifference to "underhanded tactics" his prosecutors had used to
unjustly win cases.

Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth.

Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter.

If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove.

Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness.

Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and ApartmentsGives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the MediaInvestigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall MachineReports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws.

True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians.

It's been written about True NewsThose of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well.

Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting.

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On October 15, 1958, veteran broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered his famous "wires and lights in a box" speech (VIDEO)The Last Lion of TammanyHOW JIMMY McMANUS, MANHATTAN’S LAST GREAT TAMMANY DISTRICT LEADER, HELPED TO REVIVE HELL’S KITCHEN AND THE THEATER DISTRICT cBy James S. Kaplanf
On January 13, 2011, the law firm of Proskauer Rose moved into 11 Times Square, which is located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. In moving west to the final building of the City’s Times Square redevelopment, the Proskauer firm joined such other major law firms as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Covington & Burling, Roberts & Holland, and the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather. That such major professional firms, along with a number of newly constructed luxury apartment buildings on 42nd Street from ninth to eleventh avenue and trendy restaurants and off Broadway theaters would be located west of 8th Avenue in midtown would have been almost inconceivable fifty years ago.
Tammany Last Stand Continued

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"I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures." Boss Tweed

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. ” -Thomas Jefferson

“Nearly all the newspaper accounts published at the time were manufactured by journalists at a distance, and were not only inaccurate in their facts but intentionally misleading.” - George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

Gene Kelley in “Inherit the Wind” described the job of a newsman: “Comfort the afflicted; and afflict the comfortable.”

In the beginning of the last century, Lincoln Steffens and Jacob Riis were the muck rakers. Steffens tried to rouse the public to take action against the misdeeds of government and corporate leaders. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was the pioneer of photo journalism. He took his camera into the miserable tenement slums of the city. Depicting the plight of the poor, he wrote a book called “How the Other Half Lives.”

"Through the years of the 20th century even the most mercenary of newspaper owners were, above all, conscious of their duty to inform the public and they backed their reporters to the hilt. It was not just a matter of right or wrong---but common sense. The ethics of good journalism in this era, alas, seems to have been forgotten." Gabe Pressman

"A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues." Theodore Roosevelt

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." — Ben Hecht

Kempton once said, "There's no excuse for kicking somebody unless he's up." Murray Kempton used to kick people who were up all the time, and though he was half their weight and underpaid it was beautiful to watch. Quite beautiful.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. - George Orwell

There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us. - Walt Whitman